Was that it? Frigga demanded. Was that where he'd gone all those times? Had he another life somewhere? Another woman? A family?

No, he promised, it was nothing like that. He'd not set foot in Asgard since he'd left it all those years before. He'd sworn never to return. He'd never meant her to know.

Never to know her husband's name? she asked, calmly – in spite of all the tears on her beautiful face. She asked to hear it again, his name.

Odin, he told her.

He was tired. So tired.

Odin, she tested it. And his rank?

Sole remaining heir to the throne of the AllFather.

She looked at him, very quietly.

"I never wanted this," she said.

Odin looked at her in silence for a long moment.

"Neither did I."